Or not...
Here's a chapter dedicated to all penguins.
Follow Ethan's exploits in his journey.
Enjoy
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SIDE STORY - Ethan the White Flash
All new players were gathered in one place and that is Cross Kingdom. There're no exception. Every newbie was put through Tutorial Scene before arriving at Cross Kingdom.
It was the 2nd day in Eden Online. A young boy with a white hair was seen running through the center plaza. He has average height and a slim body. If a stranger sees the way he moved, they'll think he was new to this VR environment.
His movement was stiff like a mechanical doll. His body keeps moving in an absurd manner.
'Argh, this is harder than I thought.'
He's trying to make his body move the way he wants, but it seems there're certain restriction applied in this VR environment.
And then he gave up. It seems he can't make his body bend the way it's not supposed to be (such as bending your leg / arm without regard to the joint).
He check his equipment and character info.
"Hmmm. Short sword. Not good enough."
He said that while trying to slash his sword near the fountain. As if he got bored, he started to walk toward the south gate.
Outside the gate, there're quite a lot of newbies hunting wild rabbits. He stood still for a while, and then he hit one rabbit.
The rabbit starts to retaliate by jumping and kicking him, but he avoids most of its attacks. He keeps doing sidestep without attacking the rabbit.
'I need to test the movement limit.'
The gap becomes closer, as he tried to evade with a paper-thin difference. After 20 minutes passed, he finally started to swing his sword at the rabbit, but he didn't killed the rabbit. Every slash was aimed with a paper-thin difference. It seems he tried to measure his accuracy.
*Author's Note : he's actually reading the rabbit reaction to his attack, looking for a blank spot.
Another 20 minutes passed, he finally killed the rabbit.
As he looks around, he find something similar to wooden carriage in a distant. When he takes a closer look, the carriage is under attack by goblins.
He moves slowly toward the carriage. Suddenly he stopped in his track and started to observe his surrounding.
'The atmosphere is different, my skin feels the air vibrates.'
Soon enough, he found something shiny in a distant tree.
'A mirror? No, more like iron. Archer!'
He steps back and duck.
'I'm not the target?'
No arrow's coming to his direction. It seems, he's out of the archer range. He crawled on the ground, trying to reach the archer. On the way, he found 3 other goblins hiding in the bush.
'Hmmm, ambush party and an archer. Pretty good for low intelligence monster.'
He crawled past the hiding goblins and make his way toward the tree. When he reached the base of the tree, he hides behind the roots.
10 seconds later, the archer comes down, but got ambushed by the white haired boy.
'It's a scout, so the other 3 will be vanguard. Its health is not that high, I should be able to kill the other 3 easily.'
He assumed the goblin scout movement and ambushed the 3 goblins who are hiding in the bush.
He killed the other three easily and proceed toward the carriage. He saw 1 Goblin Commander, 2 Goblins Warrior, and 1 Goblin Henchmen.
He waited until two goblins go inside the carriage and make his move. He targeted the easiest prey between the two who are standing guard outside the carriage.
His movement's fast and he keeps aiming at his enemy blank spot. To his opponent, it looks like a person suddenly appear to his left/right.
The commander's standing still incapable to react against the boy's movement.
In a matter of seconds, the goblin warrior drop dead. The boy then moves toward the commander. The commander seems confused because the boy keeps appearing from his blank spot. When the commander HP bar drops to 60%, he starts to charge at the boy, but keeps missing every time.
The boy moves like a professional assassin. He keeps striking at vital spot, but the system message didn't show any damage differences.
Just when the two goblins come out of the carriage, the commander drop dead. The boy immediately makes himself hidden beside the carriage. When the goblins approached the commander's body, the boy appeared behind them and start attacking.
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Being taken by surprise, the goblins were thrown into confusion.
Watching the way he fights was like watching somebody dancing with the monsters. His movement's smooth as if he can read his opponent mind. Soon enough the two goblins followed their commander footstep and drop dead.
'Now that's more like it.'
The boy leaves without checking the carriage. He's walking toward the forest. He keeps hunting the monsters inside the forest without rest. When he reached level 5, his exp bar stuck at 99%.
'Is there some kind of quest to progress past level 5?'
With that in mind, the boy starts walking back to the south gate.
Once he reached the town, he noticed the quest info updated.
'So I need to change class to advance past level 5.'
The boy starts to follow the quest direction and talk with the NPCs.
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At the Gate of Trial.
When the boy's teleported, he feels the air vibrate against his skin.
'Another change in the atmosphere. What now?'
The boy's getting cautious, but no sign of danger. A person with a small build appeared near the weapon stack. He wears a chainmail. On his back, a sword bigger than his body can be seen.
"My name is Orga, and I'll be your instructor."
"..."
The boy's eyes followed Orga's movement. He's like a wild animal observing his prey.
"What an inconsiderate person. You should at least show a little bit respect."
Saying that, Orga dashed toward the boy. The boy leaped back and prepared his sword.
'Something's different, my body's moving they way I want it to.'
"Oh ho, you have a good reflex. I praise you for that."
Orga smiled and took a defensive posture.
"Let's see what you got, boy!"
The boy ignored the instructor and kept moving his body in an absurd manner.
'Ohhh, I can do this. This place doesn't seem to have movement restriction."
Taking a deep breath, the boy leaped toward the instructor. He starts slashing when he saw a gap in his opponent defense.
"Kuuh, are you really an amateur?"
"..."
"Shit, to be pushed by nobody. I won't allow this!"
The instructor prepared his stance.
'An opening!'
The boy rushed toward the instructor and kept hitting rapidly. The instructor was forced to take defensive posture. Every time the instructor show movement, he slashed it in check.
'This should be enough.'
The boy abruptly ended his combo and leaped back. The instructor doesn't seem to be moving, but he's clearly conscious. The instructor mouth opened wide, but no words come out.
The boy picked accelerate from the list and the skill registered.
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4th day in Eden. The white haired boy can no longer be seen inside the town, although there are rumors about white ghost appearing in the forest. No one really knows that it was Ethan.
"Kyaaaaaaaa......... "
"Wha... What is it?"
"A.. a ghost... there's a white ghost over there!"
"Ghost? There're only goblins and kobolds inside the forest.Is it a boss monster? Guys, check it out."
"You're gonna follow it?!"
"Of course, this is a game world. There's no ghost here, there's only mob to hunt."
The party consist of 2 warriors, 1 archer and 1 priest. They're trying to track the white ghost movement. The priest seemed reluctant, but the other members kept moving. She had no choice but to follow.
A few meters near the beach.
"Jackpot! Be careful guys!"
A horse with fire coating its whole body appeared. A light is shining in what supposed to be eye socket. Every time the horse breaths, fire comes out.
The one with the loudest mouth seems to be their leader, he takes the role of a tanker. Looking at his HP bar, he's high leveled, since the boss attack didn't do much damage.
"Ha, this is easy!"
With 1 tanker, 1 focused healer and 2 damage dealers, the boss HP was cut bit by bit. When it reached 20%, it started to dash leaving behind a fire trail on the ground.
'Fool!'
<
The boss skill was locked with <
"What the?!"
The boss died and the items dropped soon disappeared.
"Who... Who is it!"
'I thought no other players can go inside the boss are if we're currently engaging.'
"I was here the entire time. You guys are the rude one! To think you tried to steal my prey."
"Bu... but the system message!"
"There's nothing wrong with the system, I entered the area at the same time you entered."
"Grrraaahh, give us the items dropped by the boss or else...!"
"Or what? You wanna try?"
"So be it! We'll just take it by force! Go get him, guys!"
<
The white haired boy moves like he teleports around the area. The party members tried to hit him, but they always missed him. Whenever the party members tried to make a stance or use a skill, the white flash suddenly appeared next to them and canceled their skill with a two hits combo.
The priest looks at the battlefield with a horror look on her face. She tried to heal her teammates, but whenever she picked a target, the white flash appeared next to her target. Her party members were being killed one by one without being able to track the ghost movement. Soon enough, her turn come and black color filled her vision.
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Editing's done, not much difference though.
I realize this side-story is lacking depth, but I'll try to be better on future chapters.